The Days of a Man 1872 



the bottom of his pocket. But he couldn't afford 

 to leave his insects to go out to make money, and 

 we couldn't afford to lose him. Besides, he deserved 

 the prize, for it is better to know animals than to 

 write about them nicely or to adorn one's knowledge 

 with fair pictures. So we stood back and let him 

 have the money he needed and had really won. 

 Prize in The third prize was offered in my senior year in 

 History Modern French History, and we were informed that 

 no award would be made unless at least five persons 

 presented themselves for competitive examination. 

 As a matter of fact there were just five possible 

 candidates. One of these (a young fellow who 

 afterward became president of a so-called "American 

 University" which offered paper degrees in Australia 

 and England) had borrowed all my elaborate notes 

 on White's lectures, and combined them with his 

 own. He then asked especially that his notebook 

 might be considered in the competition. This 

 request involving a patent unfairness, I went off to 

 the glens on the day set for the examination, which 

 was accordingly not held. 



Personally I do not believe that universities 

 should offer prizes for work, or should grant honors 

 of any kind if these are viewed purely as a stimulus 

 to scholarship. No scholarship worthy the name 

 rests on outside rewards; every true student works 

 for the sake of knowledge. If he competes for 

 prizes a legitimate proceeding, of course it is 

 probably because he needs the money, not the 

 Custom stimulus. And soon after our day the custom was 

 abandoned abandoned at Cornell, as it did not fulfill the ex- 

 pectations at first entertained by the president. 



C76 3 



